Category: Hope Is Vital

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Until Next Time?

Hello,

Barbara here again. Sorry for the late post loyal followers of the ASB Hope Is Vital blog site, but due to a the forecast of snow, our team left on Friday night instead of Saturday morning, so we didn’t get a chance to blog. But have no fear. Here we go…

Friday was our last day at Community Servings. We all are humbled by how much the organization needs volunteers and how much we were able to help by being there. At the end of our four day service, our team managed to help prepare 2950 meals for the clients at Community Servings! That’s a big deal for me. I think what was even more inspiring is how many of the volunteers have been coming for years, 5 days a week, for 8 hours a day and are able to feed so many families. My team has the privilege of calling what we doing for 4 days ‘community service’, yet many of these volunteers have made Community Service a part of their lives. It’s no longer service for them, but just another day. Which is absolutely amazing and a place I hope everyone on my team, including me, gets to at some point in their lives.

Speaking of my team, I am amazed at how much my team was able to come together. We had a few hiccups along the way. We’ve had deep conversations in which we didn’t always see eye to eye, but we also had amazing inside jokes, stories, and a great time in Boston. We spoke about race, class, gender, sex, and so much more. I am proud that we felt comfortable enough with each other to ask deep questions and even comfortable enough to disagree. Our learning partner was imperative to how well this trip turned out and I just wanted to give a quick shout-out!

So, loyal readers, I’m sure you’re familiar with this part of the post. Here’s hashtag time:

#trollingforhipsters #Where’stheparty #thisisrealgold #notforfacebook #freeEmily #thatfalsettothough #whenindoubt #straddleitout #Frankieisapuppy #weonlyhave$313 #sobecareful #youdoyoudude #barbaraisafacist #justsayingisallI’msaying #vamanos #you’refired #Emilyisapanda #caseytheselfiequeen #everyoneissosassy #speakingtoFrenchdudes #thedishroomisnojoke #don’trunforthetrain #whereistamar #ASBBoston #hopeisvital #HostelingInternational #communityservings

Hoe you enjoyed reading!

 

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Thank You!

This morning I visited a whole new world inside of Community Servings! This special place is known to most as the dishwashing room. In our first couple of days I worked in the professional kitchen chopping onions and in the volunteer kitchen packing everthything from soup to dessert. But, now I found myself washing dishes along with two other volunteers, one of which was my group memeber Casey. I got to scrub chicken fat off of baking sheets using a paint scrapper, something that one of the ladies volunteering said “at least this will make your foremarms big and strong” which it definatly did. As bad as it may sound to be scrubing hard crystalized chicken fat off of a baking sheet, I don’t think it was too bad being that I only did it for a little while and once this entire week. I was especially understanding after I found out some information about Daniel, one of the workers in the dishwashing room. Daniel commutes about two hours everyday to work at Community Servings, inside of the dishwashing room, often by himself. So he gets to scrub chicken fat, pie crusts and dried gumbo off of pots and pans all day long, sometimes taking shifts with others. When asked about why he does this arduous work he replied that he does it because he knows that the work he is doing means the world to the clientele of Community Servings. One of the cooks admitted “the dishwashing room is the heart of Community Servings and without it the whole operation wouldn’t work”. Therefore, I would like to say thank you to Daniel and the others who work at Community Servings doing what has to be done to make sure Community Servings can operate as smoothly as it does and operate at all.

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Hope is Vital – Serving is simply being human

As I am trying to summarize what I have been doing and feeling this week, an amazing quote by Gandhi comes to my mind. “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”, he said. I have been soul searching a lot recently, and being a part of Hope is Vital team has been such a great experience! As you know, we are working with Community Servings to prepare food for the critically ill population around Boston area. We have already spent three days doing service, and although at the end of the day I often feel tired, I am glad that I get to make a difference in someone else’s life. To be able to help others is a privilege, and I would love to continue doing so. These days I have been thinking and learning a lot about larger issues such as poverty, race, identity, and the value of service. I am also one of the two people that facilitate the reflection every evening, and I am quite happy with the discussions we are having. Yesterday’s reflection particularly stood out to me because we talked about the reasons why different people do service. How do we determine the value of one’s service? Is it one’s intentions, outcomes, or an interplay of different factors? I have been pondering upon these questions in my free time, and I am realizing that we, human beings are all connected in ways that are invisible to the eye but recognizable to the heart. And maybe serving is nothing but simply being human. I have had a lot of feelings and revelations this week, and the one thing I hope for after getting back to Lafayette is to be able to maintain this attitude, curiosity, and desire for a positive social change. It is incredibly easy to go back to my bubble and become comfortably numb, but it is clear to me that service is a duty that I need to accept as a moral human being.
Tomorrow is our last day of being here. I am glad that we got to see Boston too, I enjoy the atmosphere of this city. I also like how I can spend the first half of the day in the kitchen and see the Museum of Fine Arts in the second half. Even physical tiredness is okay because I feel like I have a purpose now. You can be sure that I will be talking about ASB and the lessons I learned for a long time!

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Service Day 3

Day three of service and the time spent at Community Servings is still flying by. It is hard to believe that we only have one more day to spend with these wonderful people who devote so much time, energy, and emotion to others in the most graceful of ways. The word “graceful” may not be the most common adjective used in association with community service, but for me, it has become a surprising prevalent theme for this trip.

The idea was first brought up by a volunteer at Community Servings. This person volunteers most days out of the week along with working professionally in a hospice. Surprisingly, what frustrates them the most are the assumptions made by others (patients, other volunteers, outsiders, etc.) that they only do what they do because it is their job. And I understood what they were trying to say.

The golden rule states “do unto other as you would have them do unto you.” In this context, we have to put ourselves in the shoes of those we are serving, which is exactly how we spent this evening’s reflection. We discussed our own agency (in brief: ability) and thought about what our lot would be if we were HIV positive. When placing myself in the shoes of someone who receives meals from Community Servings, I would not like to feel like a charity case, a burden on society.

And that is what the volunteer was telling me. We should serve with pure intentions; not out of pity or to build our own reputations, but because we genuinely want to help people have better lives. This mindset shows through the actions of many of the workers at Community Servings. They really put thought into everything they do and can be meticulous to the point of perfection.

I am sad that tomorrow is our last day here, but have appreciated every second.

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Like I Never Left

Hello everyone,

Barbara here. Today was our team’s first day of service at Community Servings. This is my second year working at this amazing organization and so far, nothing’s changed. And I mean this as a very high compliment. The chefs are still extremely talented and devoted to making nutritious and delicious food. The volunteers are still hopeful, excited, hospitable, and helpful. The mission is still the same: delivering nutritious and tasty meals to families living with chronic illnesses. I am so glad to be back!

We began our first day of service with the volunteer orientation. Our team learned how important washing our hands were as many of Community Servings clients have suppressed immune systems and so any contact with bacteria or germs could potentially result in a client’s hospitalization or death. We learned the importance an organization like Community Servings has in the community. Many of the volunteers Our team spent the entire day slicing, dicing, plating, scoping, packaging, washing, you name it! We realized just how much thought gets put into feeding these families. I was on the assembly line packaging a meal of chicken cacciatore, mashed potatoes, and vegetables and I remember that we would wipe the containers so that they were clean and aesthetically appealing, which reminded me that actual families are eating these meals and we should treat them with the respect they deserve.

Today reminded me a lot of cultural assumptions about those who receive free food or services and assumption that they will be glad to get ANYTHING (the sort of beggars can’t be choosers scenario). Community Servings reminded me that retaining the dignity of those we serve is fundamentally in service work. We should not come in with the attitude that those we serve should be appreciative of whatever we give them. Rather Community Servings helps me realize that I am working to benefit someone else, and I should think about their wants ad desires, not the other way around. I’m reminded of what serving the community means to me: understanding what the community needs and working to provide what community members need in tandem with the community. I am super excited about continuing to do just that with Community Servings for the next couple of days.

Till some other time!

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Hope is Vital – Day 2

With today being MLKJ day, a lot of things were closed but we were lucky enough to get enough tickets for our team to go see Selma. The theater was packed but for good reason. The movie led us to some interesting conversations especially about teamwork and leadership.These continued for the rest of the afternoon and even into our alumni dinner. The three alumni (classes of 2009, 2011, and 2013) were happy to talk about a variety of topics from careers and majors to experiences on ASB trips and travel advice. After a great dinner we headed back to the hostel for our first team reflection which was great. We talked about our hopes and fears for the week as well as our expectations of our service. I feel like this time really got us all excited to get started at Community Servings tomorrow morning. We also got to hear from each team member about where we stand right now and got us all on the same page. We can’t wait to meet our community partners tomorrow!

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Hope Is Vital: MLKJ Day Adventures

Today we started our day walking around until we found a very popular bakery and cafe called the Flour Bakery. It was interesting to see the very different types of people, since many had traveled in order to visit such a well-known food-attraction. Although we got quite lost on our way to see the Selma movie today, I believe it strengthened our team unity since we all kept our spirits up and had to cooperate with one another to find our direction. I think that such bonding will help us work well together when we begin our volunteering tomorrow. We also ate dinner with some Boston alumni, and one of them had actually been on the same ASB trip as ours! So it was great to hear about his experiences and how they’ve affected him and possibly how our experiences may affect us.

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ASB: Hope Is Vital Cultural Excusion

On the first full day of the Hope Is Vital trip, our team is already coming together wonderfully. As we walked around Boston, experiencing the sights and sounds of the city, I could feel how cohesive and prepared we were to start our service. From watching a duo of street performers juggle and perform acrobatic feats to exploring streets and riding trains and busses, we had many opportunities to bond and become closer. We have established relationships that will allow us to better serve once we start our volunteering and I can only see those relationships growing stronger.

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ASB Hope Is Vital Cultural Excursion

Today, we had our first encounter with public transportation in Boston. Navigating the T we found our way to Quincy Market and an indoor vintage market, as well as the USS Constitution. At the naval yard we attended a tour of the ship led by a Naval Officer. The officer discussed why he chose to join the service and what it means to him to work on the same ship that housed so many great heros, who dedicated their life to service. While this was a great bonding experience for us as a group, I think the Naval Officer’s commentary was a true testament to the importance of serving others and how those actions can lead to a more fullfilling lifestyle. As we head into the remainder of our week in Boston, I am really looking forward to our time at Community Servings. We have had a multitude of bonding experiences and it is only our first full day in Boston! These experiences we have had as a group will allow us to work cohesively when we walk into Community Servings on Tuesday morning. That way we can accomplish as much as possible and be ready to complete whatever tasks come our way!

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ASB: Hope is Vital (Pre-Trip Part 2)

We have all arrived in Boston and checked into our hostel! We’re right in the heart of the Theatre District and only a stone’s throw away from Chinatown; I can step outside the hostel and see restaurants and pubs in either direction for blocks. It’s good to be in Boston. It’s my first time in Boston, so I’m excited to get some meaningful exposure to the city. We have time set aside tomorrow and Monday to go sightseeing, so I’m looking forward to getting a real feel for the city. The Commons, Bunker Hill, the Museum of Fine Arts, the USS Constitution, the whole nine yards.

As excited I am to see everything this great city has to offer though, I am even more thrilled to begin our service with Community Servings on Tuesday. Providing assistance to those afflicted with HIV is a noble endeavor, and to be a part of such a cause, even for a few days, is rousing. As we perform our service and help with the meals, I hope, in particular, that we will learn more about the specific circumstances surrounding the lower-income individuals in Boston who have HIV (Community Servings clientele). Theirs is a unique experience, and also one that I have little knowledge of or experience with. Anyway, dinner will be ready soon (thanks to Barbara for tonight’s dinner!), so I’m going to attend to that! Expect more from my teammates as the week progresses!